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Jackson

A fire that heavily damaged a garage used by the Jackson County Maintenance Division was heavily damaged by a fire late Monday, according to Jackson County Emergency Services.

A spokesman for the Jefferson Fire Department said Tuesday that the cause of the fire has not been determined.

Firefighters responded to the fire on County Farm Road about 6:15 p.m., about an hour after the building had closed, and found it heavily involved with fire, authorities said. No one was occupying the building at the time of the fire.

The Humane Society of Jackson County has opened registration for a 5K road race on April 18 at Crow’s Lake in Jefferson as part of a fundraising event called Pet Fest. Besides the race, there will be an array of arts and crafts vendors, children’s activities, dachshund races, live entertainment, demonstrations, a bake sale, a chili cook-off and an art contest.

The fun run and 5K will start at 8 a.m., while the Pet Fest goes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Jefferson Community Theatre will host a dinner theatre production of “Radio Show” 6:30 p.m. March 6 and 7 p.m. March 7 at the Jefferson Civic Center. The musical, based on events in the 1940s, is directed by Andy Garrison. Reservations are required. Tickets are $25 per person or $40 for two. For tickets and information, call (706) 3267-5714.

A documentary on World War II soldier Damon “Rocky” Gause took another step toward completion recently, when more filming was done in Gause’s hometown of Jefferson.

The soldier’s exploits were told in the book “War Journal: The Incredible Journey of Damon ‘Rocky’ Gause,” which is based on Gause’s journal documenting his escape from the Japanese in the Philippines and his 3,000-mile trek to freedom in Australia.

There is a long-standing mystery in Jackson County that somewhere bordering the meandering North Oconee River was a sacred Native American Indian shrine called Yamacutah.

It was here that the Indians believed the Great Spirit once walked.

The story of Yamacutah might have been lost in time if not for the documentation by local historian Gustavus James Wilson, who wrote of the shrine in his book “The Early History of Jackson County.” Wilson, 1827-1909, lived in Jefferson at the time he wrote the history.